I have a 7250 with EarthLink on the data plan and a voice plan on my cell phone with Verizon. (waiting for my voice contract with Verizon to expire and will "port" that to EarthLink as well)

Since I am carrying both devices right now I can tell you that the coverage is EXACTLY the same here on the west coast of the US for EarthLink and Verizon. I have strong coverage in all the rural areas I travel with EarthLink and am quite satisfied with their service. As a newbie I had a couple calls to tech support and found EarthLink to be light-years better than Verizon in attitude, knowledge, and "taking ownership" of the question/problem/solution. I also did a cost analysis between the two and found that EarthLink is a bit less expensive than Verizon on the 500 minute plan and both carriers are within $0.01/per minute of each other on the other plans.

I have been a Verizon (AirTouch) customer since 1995 and just as soon as my contract is up I am outta here to EarthLink for my mobile voice & data services.

I got two blackberries from Karbonsystems.com a few weeks ago, one for myself and the other for my wife, both at $199 each with 12-mo. committments. So far, there seems to be no reason to regret not going with Verizon. We love the blackberries and the network coverage is identical to what I enjoyed when I previously used the Samsung i700 via Verizon (we live in Southern Maryland, about 3 hrs north of Richmond). Since my wife and I are deaf, we only subscribe to the data plan. The default voice plan with the data plan is "pay as you go" at .45 cents a minute, which is higher than Verizon's .25 cents/min.

Now, only if Verizon would get us a CDMA modem driver so I could use the blackberry as a laptop modem......

I have an Earthlink Blackberry on a unlimited data only plan. I have not actually used the phone but it does work - can dial a number and it rings and all. The voice mail also appears to be functional. In California the unlimited data plan only plan is $39.95 and Pay-As-You-Go voice is $0.45 per minute in network, $0.60 per minute roaming.

Earthlink did assign a number to me and it does not appear to be a Verizon-style number for this area. When my Verizon cell phone contract expires I plan on switching my voice service to the BB. Earthlink told me I could port my number at that time.

I am very happy with Earthlink as my BB carrier. Great coverage and customer service.